Unions and Collective Bargaining

Chapter 22 of Human Resource Management in a Business Context (2nd Edition 2004) by Alan Price - published by Thomson Learning

Contents

Objectives

- Debate the concept of collective employee relations.
- Provide an overview of formal employee relations, including the role of trade unions.
- Evaluate comparative employee relations in a range of developed countries.
- Draw lessons from comparative employee relations.

Collectivization and confrontation

Employee relations in North America

Employee relations in the UK

The Employment Relations Act (1999)

The European Union

German employee relations

Employee relations in Australia and New Zealand

Japanese and east Asian employee relations

Organizations and employee relations

Employee relations strategies

Summary

Employee relations is a relatively new term which broadens the study of industrial relations to include wider aspects of the employment relationship, including non-unionized workplaces, personal contracts and socio-emotional, rather than contractual, arangements. This is an area with diverse ideological under-pinnings and political ramifications. Governments have taken an active part in determining its conduct. In Europe, harmonization is leading to the establishment of works councils across the EU, giving a new role for collective representation.

Further reading

Industrial Relations by Mike Salaman (4th edition published by FT/Pitman in 2001), Employee Relations in Context by David Farnham (2nd edition, CIPD 2000) and Employment Relations by Ed Rose (FT Prentice Hall, 2000) all provide good overviews of the field. International and Comparative Industrial Relations edited by Greg Bamber and Russell Lansbury (published by Sage Publications 1998) compares different countries.

Review questions

Problem for discussion and analysis

> Chapter 21  >  Chapter 23

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Human Resource Management
in a Business Context

2nd Edition 2004

by Alan Price
Published by
Thomson Learning
ISBN 186152966X

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